Tuesday, September 21, 2010

"The Devil Is A Zombie!" Says Vatican

Imagine my surprise! But yes, my able guide assured me yesterday during our tour of the Vatican Museum. The Devil, depicted in the lower right of the below photo as a snake, is in fact eating someone's brain! That must mean... the Devil is a Zombie! That's gonna make a hell of a movie! (No pun intended.)



And in such frame of mind, I tackled the Vatican.



The Pope, once elected, is a 'prisoner of the Vatican' as he cannot be alone anywhere... except every afternoon, when he is at the Vatican, he is driven to the woods at the back of the garden here, where he is let out to walk alone. What does the Pope do in the woods? Contrary to speculation, he thinks and prays. And, indeed, the Vatican Museum has lovely washrooms. Good to know.



And the gardens are lovely.

We were lucky during our tour to gain access to two areas that are normally closed - the Iconography room, with a sample below, and the Pope's garage, where various carriages (made in Britain, as are the Queen's) and cars are on display, including the vehicle in which JP2 was shot, and later incarnations of the Popemobile.



I don't know what this is. Well... actually... it is a very large pine cone. I don't know WHY it is.



The Museum also has a commemorative statue of Graham Chapman. "I have a vewwy gweat fwiend in Wome..."



And Julius Caesar.



Now this is interesting. The statue below has a fig leaf where the naughty bits used to be. The accepted story is that a Pope ran amok years ago and had them removed for reasons of propriety and that they were thrown in a box some where. This has become even more accepted since the wide success of the book and movie Angels and Demons. But...



...our guide, a PhD candidate in Art History says this isn't so, that they were removed by Vandals and Visigoths and so forth, so, and I quote "it's not like they were whacked off or put in a box." Well, I for one am glad they weren't whacked off.

A cool view of St Peter's from the back.


I don't care if they ARE Swiss. These are the Funniest Guards Ever. I wonder if they can make balloon sculptures of the Pope.



This is the altar at St Peter's, also known as The Temple of Wretched Excess.




The famous Egyptian obelisk in St Peter's piazza.


And the requisite picture of the Piazza, which is absolutely massive.


I'm going back tomorrow to visit the Necopolis, or Scavi, below the crypt. If the Pope doesn't read this first.

Ciao!

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